Authors are needed by The Nazca Plains Corporation. Book length manuscripts
of 50,000 plus words can be submitted to us at NazcaPlains@aol.com. Put “New
Author” in the attention line please.

We are looking for undiscovered new authors who can truly write and draw us
into their story.

Standard Author contracts are offered. While there is not a lot of money to
be made, you just never know when a new book will take off and make serious
money. Give us a try. We will read your manuscript and let you know of our
interest within one working day.

The Nazca Plains Corporation

Questions we have been asked in the past:

1. What percentage of the book’s sales goes to the author?

Our industry standard contract calls for 10% of the wholesale price of the book
to be paid to the author after collection. Wholesale prices vary with each
vendor who sells the book. 8% is paid for out of the normal book selling
channels. If the book is sold somewhere in the world market then the
percentages are cut by half due to the additional expense of providing the book
overseas.

2. Can I make a lot of money publishing my books?

The short answer is a very loud NO! To recover our costs, you will not receive
any royalty payments for the first 250 copies sold. With 75,000 new titles
added monthly to Amazon, the odds are greatly against you to build a living from
writing a single book or even five books. Having said that, we do have a few
authors that are doing pretty well. A few actually seem to be making a living
out of their writing. Here are some of the secrets we have learned to sell more
of any particular book.

a. It’s all about the cover, the title and the reputation of the author. Back
cover information can help too. Nazca Plains gives good cover, as you can see
by looking over the book covers that are posted on this site.

b. Authors who produce a new book about every 10 months or so make that
author’s previous books start selling again. The more books you write, the
better all your books will sell over time.

c. Both for the author and the publisher, books are a very long-term
investment. From the publisher’s perspective, it can sometimes take 5-10+ years
for Nazca Plains to recover its initial investment.

d. Reviews are important.

3. Is a book that’s 80,000 words too long?

While every book is judged on its own merit, we like to publish books that are
close to 50,000 words. There are two reasons for this. First, our
review/editing/layout process is set up for books of this size, and second, this
is the most common size for paperback books.

4. Do I have to take my story offline if it’s currently posted on an
internet web site.

Yes – no sense in having a free version of the book online as competition to
your book’s sales. In reality, whether or not you can remove a posted story
depends upon the agreement you have with the site that’s hosting your work.
This is something we can discuss.

5. Is this like print-on-demand or E-Publishing?

Yes and no. We use on-demand presses and we use regular print presses depending
upon our vision of the final product. Some of our full magazine-size
publications are printed in South Korea to get the best price while some 6” X 9”
books are printed on-demand in the US, UK, Australia, France, Italy, Rio de
Janeiro and Belgium depending on the market that we are supplying.

We are quite different from the usual on-demand printers, as we do not charge
authors in any way. We absorb the costs of preparing the book for print,
providing a cover, and submitting it to all of our printing facilities along
with all the major E-book suppliers. On-demand printers can charge up to $4,000
per book if you use all of their services.

6. I don’t have anything ready right now. How much time do I have to
work something up?

There is no rush here. Take your time; make certain your writing is the best it
can be and that you’re comfortable submitting it…whether it takes a week, a
month or longer. We publish from five to ten books a month so there is usually
no problem fitting you in when you are ready. One caution however, your book
must be well edited for spelling and grammar. If it arrives in poor shape you
may be asked to withdraw the manuscript and resubmit when it is edited.

7. What about sex between two 17 year olds? What about kissing and
making out between teens?

All characters in a sexual situation have to be over the age of 18; we
will not publish anything depicting sex with anyone under the age of 18 either
within a current time-line or a rendition of things that happened in the past.
As to non-sexual situations, so long as it does not lead to a sexual encounter
between individuals under the age of 18, it should be all right -- but we’d have
to review the manuscript before we could say for sure.

8. Do you edit the books?

We review the books and if something major jumps out at us we’ll point it out
and ask you to change it. It is the author’s responsibility to edit for
typos and grammar. We suggest you have a friend or fellow writer review
your work for errors. Editing services are available at the rate of $25.00 per
hour. We can also suggest some professional editors for you. We have found
that cleanly edited books sell better than books that have not been edited by an
outside person. In fact, bad spelling and grammar tends to kill a title faster
than anything else. People do talk.

9. What do I need to do to submit my manuscript? How long before I hear
a decision about whether you will publish the book or (if accepted) when the
book will be available for purchase?

When the book is submitted, it will be read and you should have a word back from
us in one or two weeks depending on our current load. You must submit the
material in MS Word format (if you are using a Mac, please save it in MS Word
97-2004 format: .doc not .docx).

You may want to provide a dedication page, perhaps an acknowledgement page, a
short one-page bio and a head-and-shoulders photo. From that point, the book
will take us about one week to several months to format, at which time we will
send you an electronic proof copy. Once you have sent us the final corrected
version, our art department will create the cover. We generally get the book on
the market within three months from the date of original submission plus the
time it takes you to return or approve the proof that we sent you.

Let me add one comment about our covers. Recently, an author with multiple
books posted his latest cover on his personal blog. The cover received the
following reactions from his readers. “Moody and Elegant” “Draws you in”
“Artistically compelling” “Gets better in every book” “I’d buy ‘em just for the
covers alone”. We will try and make your experience similar.

We don’t publish until you have signed our contract and mailed it to us for our
signature.

10. What sort of promotion do you do for the book? Do I have to do any?

The ways we promote a book involves a very complicated and lengthy process; some
of that process is proprietary. The parts we can tell you about are as follows:

a. Proliferation: When we assign an ISBN number to your book, the book is then
listed on the computers of many retail booksellers. It will take up to two
months for your book to be listed on Amazon-US, Amazon-UK, Amazon-Germany,
Amazon-Japan, Amazon-Canada, Amazon-France, Baker and Taylor (the company that
owns B Dalton Booksellers and many other retailers and is the world’s largest
wholesale system for books), Barnes & Nobel and many smaller chains too numerous
to mention.

b. Wholesale Distribution: All Nazca Plains’ titles are available from Ingram
Distribution (US and Canada), Bertram’s Book Services (UK,Europe and Africa),
and Bulldog Books (Australia and the Far East). We have worldwide distribution
and are well known to wholesale book buyers -- especially for our covers.

c. Specific Book Buyer Notification: Each month we send direct emails to our
extensive worldwide list of book buyers. This list includes all stores
worldwide that we have been able to locate that have an interest in our books.
Orders are then faxed to us by those stores. Some stores receive books directly
from Nazca Plains while others are directed to our regional distributors.
Flyers: Some distributors insist on receiving a physical full-color flyer about
a book. We provide the flyers. These distributors usually have a large sales
staff and the sales staff uses the flyers when they physically call on store
buyers.

d. Direct Phone Contact: A select group of store buyers maintain a personal
relationship with Nazca Plains and we speak monthly about our latest titles.

e. Writer Support: From time to time, we are asked to provide special delivery
of books for use at a book signing that has been arranged by the author. We are
generally able to provide the books very quickly, as these book signings often
come up without much lead-time. When an author needs books, three weeks is
about the average lead time needed.

Over the last few years we have found that the authors that make the most money
are those who attend events and gatherings and sell their books directly to the
public that has the most direct interest in their topic. We provide those books
for you to sell at the wholesale price, just as we would to a store. You can
then set your own sales price.

As an example, one of our top authors generally takes home about than $20,000 a
year from book sales while speaking and presenting at events around the US,
Australia and Canada. He has nine books in print and does presentations at
weekend conferences about 10 times a year.

11. What about getting reviewed?

There was a time when the promotion of a new book stretched out over a two year
ramp-up period. Other than for well-known authors being promoted by major
publishers, those days have gone.

Most store buyers today simply review the new offerings on Amazon, paying
particular attention to your sales rank and what the reviews say. They then
place orders from distributors based on what they see.

12. What about copyright?

Under the contract, the author grants Nazca Plains the right to use your
manuscript. You maintain your copyright and can even contact the US Copyright
office and register your manuscript if you want. In the book, Nazca Plains
expresses a copyright which has to do with the physical book (the cover, the
layout, the artwork, etc.) not the content of the book.

13. Can I put my email or web site in the book?

No. This is not the internet. In the past it has been allowed with almost
catastrophic results. It is amazing what kind of stalking can take place when
troublemakers have contact information. We never give out your information to
anyone.

14. What else does Nazca Plains expect me to do?

1. Make damn sure you have edited the book sufficiently. Nothing is more
embarrassing then to have a friend notice errors in the book.

2. Get at least five friends to review the book on Amazon. Don’t delay, have
this ready to go the minute the book appears on Amazon.

3. Establish a page on Facebook and any other social media where you have a
presence. Talk about your book on Twitter. Contact reviewers on-line and offer
your book for review like Lambda Gay Literature review. When the book arrives
on Amazon, establish an Author’s page with Amazon and be ready to comment on
reviews posted as time goes on.

4. KEEP WRITING. Your writing will improve with experience and nothing left
unwritten will contribute anything.

15. How do I know if my book is selling?

There are really several ways to determine how your book is doing.

A. After publication on Amazon each author should register as an author with
Amazon and Amazon will then report directly to the author on sales.

B. Another way to see your progress on Amazon is to pay attention to the Amazon
ranking found in the book profile. Note: While the ranking shows your position
as to all other Amazon books, it does not indicate in any way the NUMBER of
books sold.

C. Once each year in February, Nazca Plains reports book sales for the previous
year. Note: Some outlets for our books take up to one year to report so
occasionally the reports have to be updated during the year.

16. The book industry seems to changing very quickly. Does the contract
with Nazca Plains have to be updated from time to time?

No, but the terms set forth in the contract may be changed from time to time by
Nazca Plains to better take advantage of those changing conditions. Nazca
Plains publishes a “Current Policies” page on this website and those policies
have the effect of changing the terms of the contract.

17. What if I want to be my own publisher? Does Nazca Plains have a
program to provide publisher services rather than marketing?

Yes. We do prepare books without doing the actual publishing and marketing.
You can hire our services for that purpose. Click here for our price list for
services. Once these services are rendered you are ready to publish your work
where you want and then you will have a direct relationship with the various
distribution outlets.